Mercury only has a few years left

An aging fleet and no major updates in the pipeline has many fearing Ford’s Mercury brand may not be around in a few years time. The only new model planned for Mercury is a reskin and hybrid option for the 2009 model-year Milan sedan. Ford execs insist that there is a place with the Blue Oval for both Lincoln and Mercury but admit that there’s more focus being placed on Lincoln under the Way Forward turnaround plan.

Good riddance to a useless brand.
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aeyjay - 9/3/2007 3:44:49 PM

0 Boost

Thank goodness FoMoCo is finally seeing the light. It's taken long enough... Brand like Plymouth, Oldsmobile, Mercury should all rest in peace together.
Cadillac is on a roll, but until Cadillac is really together (as in taking some serious sales away from it's competitors), GM should relinquish Buick to it's more popular market in China.

EnnNorak - 9/7/2007 9:19:43 AM

+3 Boost

They are not seeing the light. They screwed up Mercury with poor product planning and poor marketing. As for GM, Oldsmobile was a great brand, perceived for decades as GM's technology brand. GM screwed that up and had to drop the brand. Buick can and should continue as a "value luxury" brand.

Getting back to Mercury, if Ford kills it they should continue making Lincolns but sell them at Mercury prices. Later on, if Ford wants to play in the overpriced luxury market again, they can come up with a new brand under the Continental name. Ford needs a good DOHC V-8 for the Lincoln. They had one in the resurrected Mercury Marauder for a while but screwed that up and had to drop the model.

Ford's first priority should be coprorate survival and concentration on its core business of building affordable cars for the masses. Once they achieve success at that again they can once more play in other automotive markets.

aeyjay - 9/3/2007 3:45:19 PM

+1 Boost

Brands^^^, not brand

EnnNorak - 9/7/2007 9:23:25 AM

+1 Boost

Are you a grade school teacher? Spelling mistakes occur frequently in these posts because people type fast and do not have time to tripplecheck their spelling. I suppose one could first prepare a reply in a word processing application with spellcheck and then cut and paste the post from there.

aeyjay - 9/7/2007 11:25:51 PM

+1 Boost

EnnNorak, I was correcting myself LOL

Alec - 9/3/2007 4:41:20 PM

+2 Boost

Badge engineering is failing hard for FoMoCo. Mercury should be taken apart. Ford should just work on making Lincoln a much better luxury competitor.

S4cabriofoxone - 9/3/2007 11:34:21 PM

+1 Boost

I think they should re-badge the current Mercurys as Ford and dump the old Fords, as well as the Mercury brand. Interestingly, the Mercury models are significantly better-looking than their Ford counterparts but have much lamer sales.

PlanB - 9/4/2007 2:12:14 PM

+1 Boost

It makes sense for Ford to drop Mercury, I never saw the purpose of that brand anyway. Even though their cars were slighty more luxurious than their Ford twins, they can easily add that upmarket execution into their future Ford models, saving them a lot of time, energy and cash that'll be better served saving the few good models they have and renovating Lincoln.